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Our Daily Thread 5-11-13

Good Morning!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. 🙂

On this day in 1816 the American Bible Society was formed in New York City.

In 1858 Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.

In 1889 Major Joseph Washington Wham took charge of $28,000 in gold and silver to pay troops at various points in the Arizona Territory. The money was then stolen in a train robbery.

In 1947 the creation of the tubeless tire was announced by the B.F. Goodrich Company.

And in 1960 Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.

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Quote of the Day

“Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.”

Irving Berlin

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We’ll use some of Mr. Berlin’s work today since it’s his birthday.

And I know it’s not the right time of year, but how can you mention Berlin without mentioning this one?

This one’s just fun. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

54 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-11-13”

  1. “Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning…” LOL, here I am early in the morning. Nobody should be up early on a Saturday morning. 😉

    Yesterday hubby got home from work about 6:00 a.m.; today he has to be to work at 6:00 a.m. Don’t ask 🙂

    It’s too early to think of a QoD. Maybe later if no one else does first…you’re all going to sleep in now, right? 🙂

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  3. I didn’t know Chas was up. I see his comment on the news thread now. Enjoy your lounging, AJ…I might just go do that, too, while the house sleeps. 🙂

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  5. Chas is indeed up. He just came in from having waffles for breakfast. I often get something special on Saturdays. Other days it’s cold cerial. The cerial is better for us, we know. But sometimes on Saturday, it’s something different, maybe waffles, maybe eggs & grits & bacon & toast.

    I teach for Dr. Jones tomorrow. The lesson is on Titus 1. Problem is, we just recently taught I Timothy, and it’s the same subject, probably written at the same time. That is, Paul is instructing both Timothy and Titus on how to run a church.
    I’ll spend some time talking about Titus, how, though not mentioned in Acts, was important to Paul’s ministry.

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  8. Busy day, KBells. I don’t get to lounge now anyway, because two little arrows woke up earlier than usual. Time to roll!

    QoD: If you could meet one famous person (who is living) whom you have not met yet, who would it be, and why do you want to meet him/her?

    I don’t have an answer yet. Thinking of the question was enough for my brain at this point in the morning. 😉

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  9. Up, not lounging. Getting ready to go do some test grading. Silly students thought their last unit test before the final was supposed to be easy. I’ve told them that the tests get harder as the year progresses and that they need to remember previous vocabulary. Silly me thinking that teens would actually listen to and heed the advice of an adult. I’m thankful for the few serious students who enter my room each day. It is for them I press on.

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  11. QoD: I would like to meet Aung Sun Su Kyi. It would be fascinating to hear her stories of non-violent resistance to an oppressive regime and what the future of Burma looks like to her.

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  13. Pet post (Chas can skip it) 🙂

    My husband and I have been watching Hogan’s Heroes, a favorite show of his that I’d never seen before. I think that might have been the “background” to the costumes in the first part of my dream night before last.

    Anyway, I dreamed that a couple of women had five small police officer outfits, all different shapes and sizes. They had put two of them on dogs, but were trying to figure out what breeds would fit into the other three outfits. For what purpose I don’t know.

    I left and was going to return home, but it occurred to me I was going to go by the library–and I remembered that it was Misten’s first shift volunteering at the library–she was going to be in the doorway as a greeter, like at Wal-Mart. 🙂 I thought that if I went by her and she saw me, she might decide to come home with me and not work her full shift, so I figured out how to go by without her seeing me.

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  14. I have mostly been awake since 3am but was enjoying reading in the quiet house. Mr. P always has to have noise. He can read through the noise. I can’t.

    I had the strangest dreams last night.

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  15. So? What was so strange? I seldom remember a dream. The strangeness of most of my dreams is that people who are not connected are reacting together. I have had weird dreams, but I can’t recall a single nightmare.
    I can’t think of a single living person I’m anxious to meet. I wish I could corner Paul and ask him lots of questions. There are some historical persons I would like to meet. R. E. Lee, Reagan, FDR. etc.

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  16. I don’t have the gift of prophesy. I once dreamed that I would die in an auto accident in Fort Worth. I was always careful around that intersection. But I have left Ft. Worth, probably permanently and I’m still alive. None of my preminitions have happened.
    However, if Elvera has one, I take it seriously. Some of hers have happened.

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  18. Why is everyone talking about waffles and waffling?

    I have lots of dreams and remember them, at least for a while. Last night we were stringing a big clothesline up across the newsroom where we’d put story ideas up with clothespins. 🙂

    I think Misten would make a very good library volunteer.

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  21. The “incident” (disaster) in Bangladesh has brought in some interesting conversation around here. Talking about working conditions and the frequent fires, etc. And the need for Americans to buy stuff. And the need for people to work. And the presence of evil on this planet. And should you by a shirt made in Bangladesh? Should you wear a donated shirt made in Bangladesh? How can we change it all? Etc…..
    Husband and I have been reading the Randy Alcorn book on money and possessions. I pointed out that Alcorn made the comment that if all of the Christians of America (we all are quite wealthy), would live within our needs rather than up to our wants, we would free up billions of dollars for sending people over to evangelize and teach people skills that would give them employment in a positive way.

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  22. Sorry, distracted by something. Anyway, the idea is that evil will continue to exist in this broken world, but we can do things to alleviate some of the pain.

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  23. The older children are off on various assignments. If you have not received a recent newsletter from us, I can speculate why.
    Husband took the older eight with him this morning. He will drop off six of them on a roofing project in town, (one will leave in a while to go to his track meet), while husband takes two of them on to a place where they will stay for a week or two, doing work to help a couple of new folk around here get their place cleaned up. Yesterday, two of them were pouring cement for a neighbor. Tomorrow, they do the Mother’s Day potluck before he drives two of them south to meet our daughter, who will put them to work on her yard, earning the XBox older son gave them in exchange for labor. (It was sitting in our storeage shed). Then there is karate preceded by an ortho appointment, and on and on and on. I stay home and weed eat.

    Today I have about half of an acre to weed eat before I start the whole thing over again on Monday. It is my exercise program. Along with the two mile walk six days a week in the early morning. I have gained back all the weight I lost and found some more along the way……………………………………………………..

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  24. Good Morning! Qod….Billy Graham…from the time I was a very little girl, I have always enjoyed sitting and listening to older folk…I was my great grandparents favorite…I lived in a duplex next to them…I would always sneak over and spend as much of my day with them as I could get away with…
    I have read Billy Graham’s books, his wife’s books..his daughters, sons..on and on…I would love to just sit and listen to him talk…about whatever he wanted to say…

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  25. “Hogan’s Heroes” was a favorite in our household. I still quote Sgt. Schultz now and then: “I know nothing. I see nothing!”

    As for the QoD- I cannot think of anyone, other than Herman Cain or Walter Williams. Hearing them on the radio makes me want to sit and have a serious (or not-so-serious) political discussion.

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  26. I hope you use the appropriate accent, Peter.

    I agree with you, Mumsee. Alcorn’s book, Money, Possessions and Eternity, is really a must-read. It’s got plenty of Scripture documentation. I think often of his comment that all the clothing needed for the world is hung in American’s closets and not being worn. (Or maybe that was Larry Burkett?)

    So, I should go through the closet again, but really, does anyone want the old Navy ball dress from 20 years ago?

    Vintage, right? Maybe so!

    First I have to work on my Bible study–Jesus is walking on the water next! And the John the Baptist is going to die. Sobering . . .

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  27. I remember Hogan’s Heroes but it wasn’t one of our “must-see” favorites in our household. When it first came on, my mom had something of an issue with the way the Nazis were portrayed (stupid but funny and not altogether unlikeable) since she came of age during WWII. But we generally watched the show, I think.

    Of course, back in the day, there just weren’t a lot of options, we all watched the same basic shows. Our channels were very limited compared to how it is now.

    (As a kid, we used to hear scary stories about how “pay TV” was coming — I was horrified by the thought that we’d have to put a quarter in a slot on the TV set someday just to turn it on!)

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  28. I haven’t read Alcorn, but that sure sounds like a bit of a simplistic idea from an economic standpoint–at both ends of the equation. First, money that is not spent at home does mean job losses at home, and second, money that is donated as gifts casually means that people overseas won’t have jobs either. (The authors of When Helping Hurts go into this point in detail. When American clothing is donated to Africa in bulk, for example, that means Africans who used to make cloth or clothes can’t sell them anymore; so Africans begin to dress like Americans and Africans are left unemployed. And we know what happens to American families that end up on welfare generation after generation.)

    I’m not arguing for “conspicuous consumption,” just that it sounds easy to say send all the money overseas, and realistically we all can help at least one quality ministry . . . but realistically, spending in America is not what keeps other nations poor, nor will deciding to give in other nations rather than spend in America solve the problems of anyone involved.

    We do have one weird “dilemma” that I never hear any economic expert mention: that it is extremely expensive even to be poor in America. One cannot legally be homeless in many places, and we have standards on what minimal housing requires. We also charge property taxes, sometimes extravagant, on that housing. Even basic utilities are expensive. I’ve seen the figures many times of how much of the world lives on $1.00 a day, $1.50, or $2.00 . . . but such figures are really comparing apples and oranges, in one sense, because in American one literally cannot even be homeless on a dollar a day. (How would you get enough food that could be eaten without being cooked, let alone clothing and a blanket? We can’t count donations here, since they’re “income” too.) Yet in parts of the world you can have a small house, minimal food, clothing, and electricity and running water with a household income of less than two dollars a day per family member (some examples given in When Helping Hurts). When you have your own land with goats and crops, and build your own house, are those assets even counted in income? I am NOT saying that people making two dollars a day (or less) per family member are actually rich. . . . I’m simply saying that a more relevant question than daily income is whether you have all the basic necessities.

    In America, if you make fifty dollars a day, you are going to have a hard time getting even the basics–you aren’t 25 times as rich as the person making two dollars a day who has his own simple home and all the basic necessities.

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  29. so…
    A: buy a shirt and give somebody a job.
    B: don’t buy the shirt and let them be unemployed
    C: stay out of their business
    D. pool some money on a missionary who can go into the tough places (here and abroad) where they can teach the people a better way, spiritually and physically.

    Hmmm, I think I can give up ninety percent of my pile of books for that….Can I read all thousand at once? Nope.

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  30. Mumsee, the vast majority of us have more than we absolutely need, and there are indeed a lot of good places to send some of the surplus. But the argument “If we spend less, they’ll have more” is bad economics. It’s also bad economics for a high school student to raise three thousand dollars to go to some other country for a week or two as a “mission trip” instead of spending that same amount of money on longer-term genuine missions. Let the high school student work and earn the money, fund himself, and call it a vacation. If he can help someone build a house while he is there, or discover an interest in missions and go back again later, great. But not everything we do to help the poor or the pagan is good stewardship.

    One of my relatives was once struggling just to have enough food to put on the table, and she pointed out to me that she thinks part of the problem is that others assume that everyone who is poor is on food stamps, and it never occurs to them that there are still people around who won’t sign up for government programs, who instead rely on income but would willingly take a love gift now and again. But it also bothers her to see the church choosing to give money to families that haven’t cut all the fat out of their spending choices–who take a weekly family outing to Starbucks, who have cable television, etc.

    Raise the income of the poorest among us, and you raise the cost of living too.

    Money can trip us up from all directions. I definitely don’t have it all figured out, and I am Scottish from a large family with a blue-collar father, an editor of multiple books on finances, with a husband who was a banker for years, and with a daughter who is studying these subjects. I want there to be easy answers, but I think we’re pretty much promised there won’t be: “The poor you will have with you always.”

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  31. We are not getting rid of the poor or the evil in the world, that is true. But, do we as Christians live as though the stuff we own belongs to God or to us. One of the gifts I see is the gift of giving. When we who have been given so much cannot see a way to use it for His glory rather than seeing it as ours, there is a heart problem.

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  32. I do not believe in the prosperity gospel. He does not give us things so we can live in the lap of luxury, though there is nothing wrong with being rich. Many people have been gifted in the ability to make money. But what is the purpose of that gift but to further His business?

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  33. Lotsa things in this week’s World. I see where at least a quarter of 18-34 year old homeowners bought their homes before they were married.
    Elvera bought a house trailer before we were married, and put it in my name. My sister and her husband stayed in in the night before we were married.
    All the money in the family today is in her name.

    An article called “Coin Toss” tells of someone finding a 1913 coin that is worth $3.1 million. There is a fortune buried somewhere in Lexington Co., SC. My dad tells that he once got some money for working and, not wanting to share it (He was living with an uncle), he put it in a jar and buried it by a tree. He never went back for it. It’s probably still there. That would likely have been in 1917-18.

    There is an article about Boy Scouts and homosexuality. They correctly prohibit homosexual scoutmasters. However they are considering homosexual boys. I used to be a boy scout and boys around that age are not that concerned about sex. The active part of scouting is the 12-16 age group. At about age 16, boys start thinking about girls and getting involved in other things. I think they ought to leave it alone. I can’t imagine a 15-16 year old boy proclaiming that he is homosexual. Not unless provoked in some manner.
    I think someone is just trying to stir up trouble. Keep the pot boiling.

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  34. Mumsee, I posted something about the Bangladeshi disaster in yesterday’s News thread, in reply to Michelle asking similar questions. Here it is:

    It has brought yet another light on the ills of the industry. I was already pondering how the manufacture of ultra-cheap clothing in a developing country, was beginning have detrimental effects on the cottage industry of a third-world country. Here, the traditional clothing industry looks something like this: bolts of cloth are sold in the local marketplace by merchants who travel from marketplace to marketplace to sell their wares. The buyer haggles with the seller, working out a price between them. The buyer then takes that cloth to a local tailor, who sew it on his treadle machine, making a unique and attractive garment to the taste of the buyer and then the price of labour is hammered out between buyer and tailor. As used and factory excess manufactured clothing comes in the country, it endangers the livelihood, not of the merchants, who simply switch their wares, but of the tailors, who are completely cut out of the process – as they have been in the West for nearly a century.

    Personally, I buy as little cheap manufactured clothing as possible. Part of that is because the clothing itself is not worth it. The material is badly woven, the colours run and even the machine stitching is done with cheap thread. I make most of my clothes, buying quality material (where and how that material is woven is another good question) and thread and choosing classic styles for my patterns. It means a smaller wardrobe, but my skirts and shirts last for years. Some of the horror of this tragedy for me is that those people died stitching together clothes that I, in my poverty, wouldn’t look twice at when they hang for sale in my local superstore (I am familiar with at least one of the lines that this factory produced). I couldn’t afford to spend 10 dollars on a shirt that would tear in three months. Why did they have to waste their lives in such an aimless pursuit?

    It could be said that they did it to have money for food on the table, and that is true in the immediate sense. But why weren’t they rather growing their own food in their own garden plot instead of being crowded in tenements, where they had to go and pay for food at a store or market, around this illegal factory? Someone here will suggest that it is because Bangladesh does not have enough land for all its inhabitants to have gardens, as the heaviest populated country (in terms of persons per land area) in the world. I doubt that is the case in fact, as gardens do not require large areas if properly managed, but those with the overpopulation axe to grind will suggest it.

    No, it is more to do with the marketing of manufacturers and suppliers, who seduce not only their buyers with promises of cheap clothing but also their workers with the idea of a job that pays regularly, good times or bad. When people live off the land and the fruit of their hands, as they do here, it is a precarious existence. A drought year or a severe storm at harvest time means famine. To have even a meaningless job, picking up the same shapes of thin cloth and pushing them through the machine in the same direction all day, that pays regular wages seems to promise security to those accustomed to a knife-edged existence. What a hollow promise it turned out to be for those 1000 and more people, mangled and crushed by their place of work.

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  35. Thanks, Phos, if I were not beyond that, I would be a bit embarrassed to have missed that conversation. Thanks for bringing it along. Lots to think about. I just finished the book. Now, for application…..

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  36. Chas, seeing your comment motivated me to pick up and look at my copy of World that came today. I’ve been letting them pile up without reading them, although various family members read parts of them on occasion. My copy had a cover announcing “Only Two Issues Left!”. I’ve never gotten that close to letting my subscription lapse in the years since I started subscribing. It’s still a good magazine, but I don’t read print copies of much of anything anymore since getting internet at home two years ago. Still, though, there is value to the magazine, and after reading one particular article today, I think I will renew.

    The article “Abigail and Samuel” caught my attention, about the challenges facing parents and doctors regarding premature births.

    Our neighbors’ youngest child, three years old now, was born at 25 weeks and 4 days. He (and his parents) had quite a journey in the NICU days, and the little guy nearly died when he was 10 days old. There would be improvements, then setbacks, back and forth, and it was a real roller coaster ride for his parents during his 3-month, 10-day hospital stay.

    Not only was it difficult to see all the hurdles their son had to overcome, but it was heartbreaking to them to get to know different parents, only to have the day come where they suddenly weren’t there anymore. No chance to say goodbye because no one knew that the previous day would be the last day of the life of another couple’s child. 😦

    Our little neighbor overcame much, and developmentally, has always been on track with his gestational age. However, last year when he was two, he began having seizures. Apparently that is a common development around that age in premature children who had had brain bleeds, as our neighbor did. He has to take anti-seizure medication, but they haven’t found a good dose yet that is high enough to prevent seizures, but low enough to prevent other deleterious effects.

    Very challenging road to walk. 😦

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  37. I might add that manufactured clothes aren’t the only charitable import that is threatening the delicate balance here. The imported white rice comes at a lowered price from other countries because it is damaged. It is more widely available than the locally grown unrefined rice, so everyone eats it – and many go on to develop diabetes.

    That being said, the average wage around here does not add up to enough in a month to buy even a bag of the imported rice (one bag of rice is what the average family eats per month) never mind the meat and vegetables to go with it. People live, but from hand to mouth and always on the cusp of malnutrition – it only takes a bad growing year to push them over the edge.

    Those who come to live and work here try to find out how to get more from the natural resources here, rather than propping them up with supplies from abroad. For example, there is a tree which grows here whose leaves have a high nutritional value (dried and powdered, they have successfully been used to treat malnourished children), so we encourage people to use the leaves in their cooking.

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  38. There are successful aid programs. The malaria program here is one – the medication is hugely effective in eliminating the parasite and the test highly efficient in identifying it, but both medication and tests are too expensive for any one clinic to supply on their own. So donations do have their place. But the program is effective because it involves people on the ground, who know what is needed and where.

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  39. Phos & Joanne, I know you’re a long way from Northern Nigeria, but I was wondering if you were affected by any of the Muslim fighting going on around there.

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  40. There is a lot to be said for the idea of indigent pastors, and I think that transfers to lots of other areas. We need missionaries to teach the local people how to live locally. But that takes training and research and bodies to go. Which is where those of us not going should be stepping up.

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  41. Chas – not at all. In the words of I Timothy 2:2, “we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” We count that a great blessing, and we don’t discuss politics 🙂

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  42. Phos, I’m happy to hear that. I wasn’t worried because I figured someone would have mentioned it. But I often wondered when I heard about the killing and church burning in Nigeria.

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  46. Ha. Well based on what she’d been sayin’, I thought she really meant indigent. 😀 I pictured guys in rags, going door to door in Idaho, huddled against the cold, asking for a little handout to keep on keepin’ on … Church life is tough out there on the prairie.

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  50. Be nice. Just everybody be nice!
    Since it’s Mother’s Day, I told Elvera she could go anywhere she wanted for lunch.
    She immediately looked to see what restaurant for which she had a coupon..
    It isn’t a habit, it’s a reflex. When you spend your early years scrimping, saving and making do, you get a certain reflex.
    Lots of mothers and grandmothers out with kids this afternoon.
    Chuck used to work at Three Chefs. He said he could could arrange to take any day off but Mother’s day.

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  51. I was confused about why my “could” was underlined in red. I didn’t figure it out until I saw the post.
    Today’s sermon was on the fifth commandment. Not much about parents, but on “Honor”. He did point out that it doesn’t say “Honor your PARENTS, it says your father and mother.”

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  52. I taught Titus 1 in SS today. In discussing the heresy of the Judaizers, I pointed out that one of the biggest threats to the church today is trying to accommodate the modern culture. A great temptation to do that.
    Much different from the Judaizers, of course, they were legalists.

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  53. or indolent. We must not be indolent. But that is difficult on a beautiful day like today. No weedeating or mowing today. Just enjoying what God has done.

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  54. My bougainvillea is in full bloom out front — bright red/pink, very pretty, very California.

    Our sermon was the 2nd part of Rom. 5:1-5, focusing on the last 3 verses regarding trials and tribulations.

    Our pastor mentioned the photo going around on FB this week (I believe one of us had shared it here), showing a bird curled in on itself in the midst of a fierce storm. “Sometimes,” the caption read, “you just have to bow your head, say a prayer and weather the storm.”

    “… we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Rom. 5:3)

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